Nashi ran as fast as her feet could take her; Gale closely trailing behind her. The closer she got to the dungeon, the hotter the atmosphere around her became. When she finally reached her destination, she was blown back by a powerful explosion. Luckily, she landed on Gale who cushioned her fall.

"Shit." Gale groaned feeling a sharp pain in his back. It seemed like some of his injuries from before were still not yet fully healed.

Nashi didn't really pay much mind to him. Her mind was completely focused on making sure her brother was okay and judging by that explosion, something told her he wasn't. She jumped to her feet and entered the dungeon.

Raiden was bruised, he was drenched in sweat, his lip had was cut and his clothes were half burned off. He stood there huffing and heaving; his chest rose and fell rapidly.

"I-Is that all you got?" He taunted his opponent with a weak grin. "I-I could..." He took a shaky breath. "I could do this all day."

It didn't take an idiot to know he was lying. Nashi was a second away from pulling Raiden away when a head of blonde hair caught her attention.

She froze, her breath hitched in her throat.

Luke laid unconscious on the ground just behind Raiden's feet. He laid on his stomach so she couldn't see his face, but his back... His entire back was completely covered in bright red burns. Layers of his skin had already peeled away.

"Cmon, cosplayer!" Raiden yelled out. "Don't...Don't tell me y-you're being shy..." He finally caught sight of his enemy and was about to attack when a hand snatched his wrist. Raiden's eyes widened before he turned to see Nashi. Hair fell past her eyes and her whole demeanour instilled some sort of fear into Raiden. Never before had he seen her like this.

"Leave him to me." She seethed.

There was absolutely no room for argument.

Raiden nodded his head silently and Nashi let go of him. Gale ran in stopping himself to try and work out what was going on.

Gale's eyes lowered to Raiden helping an unconscious Luke up onto his back. Raiden cast him a wary glance before pointing to the other side of the dungeon. There Gale saw Hunter was also unconscious.

"Get them out so I can deal with this piece of shit." Nashi snarled not bothering to look at Gale.

Gale, like any other sane person would've done in that situation, complied without saying a word. When Dragneel's were emotionless, they were a hundred times more dangerous.

Gale moved towards Hunter with haste when flames came hurtling towards him. He braced himself to get hit... but he never did. 

Nashi consumed the flames, wiping her chin afterwards. She then looked to the source of the flames. It suddenly made sense why Raiden had called the guy, 'cosplayer.' He was creepily dressed like her father. 

The man charged towards Nashi  punching flames at her. She dodged some and ate the rest. The flames tasted like literal charcoal which left a bitter taste on Nashi's tongue. Had she not been furious in that moment, she would've stopped to gag. 

She ran towards the cosplayer snatching his arm with her hand. She gripped hard, her fingernails almost digging into his skin. 

"I'll show you real fire." Nashi hissed. She took a deep breath. "Fire Dragon Roar!" 

A roar bigger than she had ever generated rumbled from deep in Nashi's throat before escaping her mouth and hitting the man (who was only an arms length away) right in his face. The onslaught of flames continued for at least seven seconds. And after that man fell onto the ground, badly burnt and desperately wheezing for air. He wasn't going to get up anytime soon.

However, something in Nashi just wasn't satisfied. A little voice in the back of her head told her not to stop there.

Kill him.

Kill him, Nashi.

He hurt Luke. Kill him.

Nashi felt compelled to listen. Her face was emotionless as she dropped to her knees. She extended her arm back, her hand clenched into a fist while the other hand gripped the man's shirt. With one sharp motion, her fist collided with the mans face with a crunching sound. 

She punched again...and again... and again... and again. 

She couldn't stop. The voice in her head wouldn't let her. The man's face was now bloody, his nose was definitely broken now, his breathing even more weaker than before. She pulled back her fist-

"Nashi." A voice growled from behind. Her actions halted.

She turned to see Hunter towering over her, his piercing gaze meeting her eyes. His arm was slung around Gale who was helping him stand. Gale's looked at her warily with almost a hint of fear in his eyes.

"He's had enough." Hunter stated, stone-faced as ever.

"He hurt Luke." Nashi whispered clenching her hands. "He deserves to die."

"I know." Hunter replied softly. "But killing him is something you'll never come back from... You're not a killer, Nashi." There was silence for a few fleeting moments before Hunter spoke again. "Now, it's time we get out of here."

___________

Jace fell onto his face letting out a pained groan. Every time he opened his eyes, all he could do was see blurred shapes and a sharp pain would trigger in the back of his head. 

"After I finish with you, I might have my way with that pretty blonde you brought along with you." Jedediah taunted. He grabbed a fistful of Jace's hair and proceeded to pull him up so that Jace was almost at his eye level. "She's a sight for sore eyes, that one."

Jace was beyond pissed now. 

"Poison Typhoon." He yelled.

A maroon magic circle appeared under Jace's feet. Within the next second, a spiral of poison circulated around him growing bigger and bigger as each second past. It was one of the few spells Jace knew that didn't need to be aimed.

Jedediah was lifted into the air before getting thrown back into the barrier with a loud thud. The typhoon dissipated without a trace.

Jace was about to perform another attack when agonising pain triggered all over his body. It was as if his whole body was being stabbed and electrocuted simultaneously.

Jedediah let out a roaring laugh. "Using magic within this barrier has some rather painful consequences, doesn't it?" He stood to his feet, stalking his way back to Jace. "I think it's best we end it here." He yanked his sword from the ground with a sadistic grin spread across his lips. "I enjoyed our little fight." He raised his sword in the air, the blade pointing down to Jace's chest.  Jedediah was about to thrust down when his eyes caught a glimpse of his barrier flickering. He looked towards the runes that travelled around the perimeter to see that they were beginning to vanish. 

"I actually did it!" Alexis cheered raising her hands in the air and jumping in joy. "Hi five, Lucifer!" Jedediah watched as the girl high fived the air.

"You." He seethed glaring at Alexis who was now frozen in her place. "I'm going to kill yo-"

"You aren't touching her." Jace cut in. He grabbed Jedediah by the arm and twisted it, flipping the man over onto his back. "Crushing fang!" 

Five giant finger-like streams of poison followed Jace's motions as he punched Jedediah in the face. Poison mist entered into his mouth and eyelids. The complete overflow of poison in his system left Jedediah white eyed and sprawled out like an eagle unmoving. 

Jace panted heavily. With a exhausted grin, he looked around treasuring the non-blurriness of his vision and the lack of hallucinations he was experiencing. He didn't even realise that Alexis had already walked her way to him.

"Sorry it took so long." Alexis said with a little frown. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I've been through worst." Jace said shrugging it off. "Thank Mavis, you were here to help. I don't know how I would've gotten out of that one." He added. Alexis smiled warmly at him before she frowned once again.

"I've been meaning to ask this a while ago but..." Alexis' brows were furrowed now. "Who the hell is Mavis?"

___________

"There they are." Storm said spotting the others exiting the dark guild. Strangely, no bandits were in sight. Where had they all gone? Storm thought to himself. He swore there were more than what him and Ultear had beat up.

"Thank Mavis, all of them are there." Ultear breathed out a sigh of relief upon seeing Hunter and the two boys with Nashi and Gale. Hunter, Raiden and Luke looked completely battered, beaten and bruised which told her they needed to get back to the Wendy asap. 

"Were there no other bad guys?" Storm asked when the group was close enough. Gale carefully put Hunter down so they he was sitting on the ground. Raiden slumped onto the ground next to him while Nashi held unconscious Luke in her arms.

Gale shook his head. "The guild is completely empty now." He answered. The two boys shared questionable looks. It seemed they had common suspicions. "We should get back to the guild as quickly as possible." 

Although Gale hadn't yet fought, the safety of his comrades was more important to him than his urge to go out punch a face in.

Ultear crouched down next to Raiden before flicking him in the forehead. 

"Ouch!" Raiden rubbed his forehead glaring at the girl. 

"See what happens when you don't listen to me?" Ultear scolded him gesturing to Luke. "I'm trying to protect you, Raiden but I can't do that if you run off like you did."

Raiden opened his mouth to protest before he closed it. His eyes looked to his best friend then down to the ground. Ultear could see that his eyes were starting to water. 

"Sorry, Ultear." He sniffled.

Ultear's eyes looked to Hunter who's eyes were trained on Nashi. She nudged him a little bit until he looked at her. "What happened to you?" She asked. 

Hunter sighed. "I was completely drained of every ounce of energy I had." He answered crossing his arms. "I don't know what the magic was but it hurt like hell."

"Well, are you alright now?"

Hunter nodded curtly. "I'm not the one we should be worrying about." He then looked back at Nashi who was busy worrying over her brother.

Ultear was about to ask more when her pocket started buzzing. It was Jace again. She answered and his holographic face popped up. Ultear noticed he looked a bit beaten up. 

"What happened to you?" 

"Encountered this asshole in the forest but no worries he's taken care of now." Jace grinned proudly before letting out a yawn. "Dammit I need a nap." He mumbled under his breath. "The boys with you?" He asked. 

Ultear nodded. "Change of plans, we're all going home." She said to him causing Jace's eyes to slightly widen. "We had to infiltrate the guild and it didn't really end well." Jace nodded in understanding. "I'll explain everything when we see each other." Ultear added.

"We'll rendezvous back at the train station...unless you want me and Alexis to find you guys first?" Jace suggested but Ultear quickly shook her head. 

"No, we'll meet you there." Ultear said. Jace was silent for a moment before he let out a sigh.

"Okay, I'll see you then."

Ultear nodded and then hung up. "Well you all heard, to the train station we go." She announced.

__________

"Master, if I may ask... why would you let the fairy flies flee so easily?" 

Quentin grinned stroking his chin. "Well I've already got all the information I need from Titannia's boy." He said. "There was no need for wasted energy fighting those teens."

"Oh... so what shall we do now?" 

"Now we wait... we wait for END to unleash itself. And once it does, just like Eris promised, the world will surely burn and on the ashes we shall rule."

___________

did you expect such a fast update? Well neither did I. 

nashi went a little psycho huh? I wonder whats up with her...

anyways this 'arc' is over but the next will hopefully wrap things up a little better

hopefully.

#unedited

Hope you enjoyed! Don't forget to leave a comment!